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N.J. pantries preparing Easter meals to feed hungry

On Tuesday afternoon, volunteer chef Tony Bello had 20 legs of lamb seasoning in pans on the prep table in the Jersey Shore Dream Center kitchen. He is expecting a lot of dinner guests for the ministry's community Easter dinner today — perhaps as many as 300.

On Tuesday afternoon, volunteer chef Tony Bello had 20 legs of lamb seasoning in pans on the prep table in the Jersey Shore Dream Center kitchen. He is expecting a lot of dinner guests for the ministry's community Easter dinner today — perhaps as many as 300.

"This is the most rewarding job I've had. It's very rewarding to do something for people in need and not expect anything back in return," said Bello, a retired computer technician.

The non-profit ministry's kitchen is located in the Shore Christian Center in Asbury Park, a city that Gary Bickham, who handles public relations for the ministry, said has a lot of hungry souls.

"At Thanksgiving and Christmas everyone is giving away dinners. I don't see it as much at Easter," Bickham said.

Easter does, however, keep area food pantries and relief kitchens busy with holiday meals and holiday grocery baskets. Sharda Jetwani, program developer and head of intake at Lunch Break in Red Bank, said they are on pace to hand out more than 600 holiday Easter meals that will feed more than 1,500 people this season.

"We'll do more this year than last year," Jetwani said on Tuesday afternoon.

Jersey Shore Dream Center founder Pastor Isaac Friedel said hunger is a year-round problem. The only difference at the holidays is people living in poverty tend to become more aware of the state they're in.

"When a holiday like Easter comes along that's so family oriented it can become a depressing time to those people," Friedel said. "What we do here is try and fill that gap with a traditional Easter feast."

Their Easter dinner will start at 5:30 p.m. today at their location at the corner of Grant and Sewall avenues. To keep with the family feel of the holiday, they will have an egg hunt for children.

Friedel, who started the ministry delivering bottles of water out of his back pack, said it's always a gamble they'll get enough food on a week-to-week basis to meet the demand. Their Easter dinner is not ladling any more added pressure on them.

The fact that the October storm thrust more people into the so-called "bread lines" is being felt at relief kitchens and food pantries all over the Shore.

"It (the demand) used to increase on a holiday but now we're getting so many people the numbers are astronomical all the time. The numbers are staggering on a consistent basis," said Carol Troy, a volunteer at the Lunch Break's pantry.

For Easter, Lunch Break is providing holiday grocery bags to community members they serve filled with items like ham and cake mix.

"It means a lot to them. It means they can do a holiday meal for their families," said Millie Jeter, administrative assistant at Lunch Break.

Last year Lunch Break doled out 600 Easter holiday grocery bags that served 1,566 people, said Jetwani. This year they'll surpass that number she said, having handed out 577 holiday meals as of Tuesday. To help meet their demand the organization sent out email blasts to volunteers, staff and community members for food donations.

"I think you need to put yourself in other people's shoes," said Troy. "If you were in need you would want someone reaching out to help on a consistent basis."

The face of the hungry is not so easily defined, said Gwendolyn Love, executive director of Lunch Break in Red Bank. It could be neighbors in suburbia just as easily as it could be the person sleeping on the side of the railroad tracks, she said.

Those who receive the meals are grateful for the assistance.

"I'm very thankful for them," said Dona Jones, a 35-year old mother of four, who was at Lunch Break on Tuesday. "I came all the way from Clifford Beach to get something for my children."